Freedom summerThe highlights of The american Civil Rights movement

The fight fOr a say

Freedom Summer, also known as the Mississippi Summer Project, was a voter registration drive organized by the Congress on Racial Equality and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committie in 1964. This gathering was designed to raise the amount of registered black voters in Mississippi. This event faced violent retaliation by hundreds of furious Mississippian whites, resulting in conflict and the death of three men. A protest in 1963 pushing blacks to boycott local businesses and ending in the murder of leader, Medgar Evans, and the further push by current president John F. Kennedy for further civil rights bills were considered to be the predecessors of this event.

The world then

The decade prior to the occurance of Freedom Summer, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's had been semi-successful at creating equality for black lives in America. Outside of the United States, the war against Vietnam was reaching nuclear measures as tensions began to boil.

Freedom Summer's Echoing Effects

The efforts of those in the Freedom Summer protest went far from being unnoticed. Their work produced the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1964, which contained 60,000 supporters. In the next presidential election year, a racially inclusive delegate was sent by the party to challenge segregated delegations at the Democratic National Convention. Here,the party delivered a passionate speech about why they should represent the party in the upcoming national election, where president Lyndon Johnston cut off coverage of the event.

The courage and tenacity present d through the efforts of this group effected national legislature for years to come and greatly impacted the overall success of the American Civil Rights Movement.

The Birmingham Post-Herald, August 7, 1964

5 Bullets in 3 Bodies: Study Shows, Shot From Front

"FBI agents fanned out around Old Jolly farm today, questioning residents for clues to who killed three civil rights workers and buried them in a red dirt dam. The FBI said it believed the three were victims of abduction and murder but steadfastly refused to confirm or deny widespread rumors of imminent arrests. Private pathologists in Jackson identified the bodies of Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24, both white New Yorkers. The third body is apparently their Negro companion, James Chaney, but sufficient scientific background on Chaney has not yet permitted the FBI to confirm the identity officially..."

Historical Context

This article was written after the discovery of the bodies of the three men who went missing while investigating a burnt church in June, 1964. The men found, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were all affiliated with the Freedom Summer organization. This was a huge discovery because of the racial motives that were suspected to be behind their murders.

The Boston Globe, August 7, 1964

Editorial: Mississippi's Conscience

"Some Mississippians who knew better mocked the search for the three missing civil rights workers, saying it was only a hoax. Now a nation horrified by mass racial violence in the North is stunned anew by the finding of the three bodes. This was cold-blooded vicious murder, the ultimate act of extremists...The next step must be the capture of the killers and their conviction by a jury -- in a state whose concept of proper justice in such cases has often been less than reassuring. It is hard to believe that the majority of the white community in Mississippi and its neighboring states are so monolithic that they are not torn by guilt. The three were slain for helping Negroes make a reality of the right to vote. It was a lynching, in an atmosphere that only the people of Mississippi themselves can purge. The crime is on their conscience. They will have to live with it, and face the condemnation of an outraged world."

Point of view

This editorial was written from the point of view of an enraged pro-black advocate. Here, the writer has virtually reached their wits end in tolerance with the unfair treatment of blacks in America. The writer places the blame of the deaths on the shoulders of Mississippi and its crooked law enforcement system who unfairly handled the murder of the three men in 1964.